Close call for mum and kids on Christmas Eve

A MOTHER and her two young children survived a spectacular car crash at Bessiebelle on their way to family festive celebrations on Christmas Eve.

The 23-year-old Warrnambool woman and her family were on the Heywood-Woolsthorpe Road when their car drifted left onto loose gravel and skidded out of control for 115 metres, knocking over a road sign.

When police and the Bessiebelle fire brigade arrived they found the sign pierced through the rear panel and wrapped around the fuel tank of the Mitsubishi Magna sedan.